


Beauty and the Beast

by Yonnieflower



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Alpha!liam, Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Alternate Universe - Dystopia, Angst, Boarding School- Omega House, Bonding, Brainwashing, Fluff and Angst, Fluff and Smut, Forgiveness, Friendship, Knotting, M/M, Mating, Mating Cycles/In Heat, Minor Character Death, Non-Consensual Drug Use, Omega!Harry, Omega!Niall, Past Relationship(s), Prison, Slow Burn, Teenage Sweethearts, Trauma, True Love, True Mates, University, alpha!louis, beta!Zayn, fight for equality
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-11-01
Updated: 2016-12-11
Packaged: 2018-08-28 07:53:29
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 17,101
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8437465
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Yonnieflower/pseuds/Yonnieflower
Summary: Harry Styles is a sixteen years old Omega sweetheart with a too strong, too tall, too bonny, not cuddly enough body and resulting serious confidence issues.Louis Tomlinson is the older Alpha male with a traumatic past sexual experience that his best friend Niall had been chatting with online.  They meet when Louis Tomlinson and his Omega Rights Activists friends crash in Harry's Boarding House to have it permanently closed, and Harry and Niall get roped into a fight for Gender Equality. Well... Harry might also get roped into the most groundbreaking crush an Omega ever had... And into a Lovestory which is gonna last him a lifetime.





	1. Beauty and the Beast

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here we are folks! This is my first work ever published on this archieve and my first published work in English so I am very excited and adamant to see this throught! 
> 
> I really hope you like it! Do not hesitate to give me your feedback, it always helps!
> 
> !! Warning for this chapter:  
> \- Dystopian World including strong power inbalance between genders.  
> \- Strong homophoby (sort of).  
> \- Hints of indoctrination. (Developed further in upcoming chapters)  
> \- Very casual graphic sex scene at the end between a main character and a secondary character.  
> It is the only time it will happen during the span of the story and is important for characters development, so please bear with it.
> 
> As well, if you would like a strong rec. of mine, run along to read the "Louis Love, Zayn Baby" series, from OhSlashy, it's pretty amazing. It's the one ABO verse work that motivated me to write my own take of the ABO Verse. I'm not writing the same genre of story, but some elements are a tribute to how fantastic I found OhSlashy's story. Please go and read it, if you didn't before, it's 100% worth it. 
> 
> Think that's all. Enjoy!

The common room is packed as usual. So much so that the youngest boys are huddled close together, sitting uncomfortably on the carpeted floor, while, the sixth formers, uncaringly, took up all of the cushy beanbags right in front of the big screen. Classic.

“So, what should I put on guys?” The older boy who found himself with the remote asks as he is browsing through dozens of rom-coms.

A general mess ensues.

“Not another stupid rom-coms!” Some year eleven pleads.

“Yeah, try and find some action movies or summat” His friend says.

The sixth formers browse for some more time. They all know, it’s absolutely useless but are willing to go through the motion every evenings all the same, hoping some new releases would have escaped the relentless censure of the headmistress.  
When it becomes evident it isn’t the case, they try to settle for the less cheesy movie on the list. Some guys just leave altogether, disappointed. To be fair, everyone is always a bit more raucous in the week-ends.

“They shouldn’t complain, really…” Harry muses for himself, bunched on one of the couch between Niall, his best friend and Matt Cardle. “At least, we have a cable TV. Not every Omega house has this privilege…”

“Hey, Hazza... “ Niall calls.

Harry leans closer to him.

“I’m going up to the room alright?” He asks.

“Why? You don’t wanna watch the movie?”

Nialls rises from the couch.

“Nah. It’s boring stuff. I’ve seen it already anyway. Plus Louis is waiting for a skype call…” He gives a peck to Harry’s forehead and strut out of the common room and up to the stairs. Harry can’t help feeling a bit let down.

Ever since his best friend met this goddamn Alpha Louis something online, he seems to spend all his time either chatting with him or generally speaking about him. Niall is so besotted with the guy it gets ridiculous. And Harry, when he is not utterly abandoned can’t exactly talk to Niall about his new obsession since Harry doesn’t have much to say about Alphas anyway. It’s not like he has much experiences to share with Niall on the subject really.  
The worst is, so far, neither did Niall and the only times they were exchanging on the subject it was all fantasies. But now, Niall is probably talking dirty and planning to meet up with this guy and he must think he knows everything and he is so grown up suddenly, and Harry is out of his depth. And lonely.

Well, it’s not exactly like he never had any similar experience at all actually. Two summers ago, when it was Aiden living in the house in front of his mum’s, he was well and truly enamoured with him. Aiden Grimshaw was a charming guy, despite being an Alpha. he had a nice face, a nice body, a nice voice, a nice personality, nice music choices, and he wasn’t overpowering Harry too much. He didn’t seem to mind either, even though Harry had heard all his life that most Alphas liked to have a substantial height gap with their Omegas, that they liked to tower over their charge. So, Aiden was great, and he seemed to like Harry. And Harry used to like him a lot in return, so the summer before last, they kissed and held hands and he even let Aiden caress him a bit, but the Alpha didn’t seem overly interested in touching or talking dirty or any other naughty things. At the time Harry was fifteen, so he was secretly glad the older boy would not push it.

When he had excitedly told everything to the guys from his Omega House on back to school day they had mocked him, ridiculed him and basically assumed he was lying because they said no grown up Alpha would be able to keep his hands off an Omega they liked or would be able to resist knotting an omega if they were left alone with them. So Harry had stopped mentioning it entirely, insecure that Aiden was really attracted to him at all. Maybe he had just tried to be nice and make Harry feel better about his height and abnormal build. The younger boy had been restless all year, waiting to be back home to see Aiden again and find out if the Alpha really liked him. But then, last summer when he went back to his hometown on a break from his Omega boarding school, Aiden’s family had moved out. He tried calling Aiden but only received apologizing texts as an answer.

Of course, Niall had tried to lighten his spirits in between spouts of praises about Louis, but by this point, Harry knew it would be a hardship for him finding an Alpha to mate with and that his fumblings with Aiden were as good as it was ever going to get. So Harry would rather not talk about Alphas anymore.

The thing is, Harry is too tall as an omega. Of course, he is really pretty with this big unblinking doe eyes and full cherry red lips, his adorable dimples, and his mane of funny, delightful brown curls but everybody know Alphas tend to prefer omegas with petite figure, small and cuddly that they can easily manhandle in bed, omegas who look like they need protection. And Harry is positively towering for an omega. He is by far the tallest out of all the boys of his Omega House and more generally the tallest Omega he knows. Actually, most Alphas don't have much on him either. And his voice is too slow, too deep and low pitched and his shoulders are too broad, not cuddly at all, and his hips are too narrow, his thighs too lanky and bum too flat. An Omega should have some meat for his Alpha to gnaw on. At least that’s what the guys from school are always saying… To sum it up even if Harry was considered pretty, he was not the kind of pretty an Alpha would be looking for, and thus, his life was going to be a hardship from the get go…

“Sometimes, Biology is a bitch.” Harry thinks begrudgingly.

“What’s going on in this sad head of yours Styles?” Marc Cardle asks as Harry is probably looking a bit dejected with his pessimistic musings.

“Not much.” He answers elusively. “Just missing having a best friend is all…”

“Oh come on. Don’t be a twat Styles. Some day it will happen to you too, and you’ll understand. It’s hard to focus on anything when you’re in love.”

“Well, you don’t seem to be struggling all that much..” Harry complains defensively.

It was common knowledge that Marc Cardle from year thirteen had been with his Alpha for a couple of years now and that they were very much in love. They were only waiting for Marc to be done with his education so that they could mate. Harry heard that Cardle already got knotted, and even though the boy never confirmed, his laid back and assured attitude were as good as a confirmation. He looked and behaved too much like a grown up for it to be a lie.  
Harry has half a mind to ask him how it felt, being knotted, but can't bring himself to ask. Only teenagers were asking and Harry is sixteen now. So he would not ask.

“Well, the freshness of it all is passed for us. We’re ready to settle, but when you start a relationship and get to first know each other, being a bit besotted is only to be expected Styles. You will see.”

Doubting he would ever and annoyed to have been slapped on the wrist by the most mature Omega of the House, Harry decides to doze off for the rest of the movie. Niall was right, the movie is predictable and lame.

 

* * *

 

“Oh! Oh! FUCK! Fuck, I love you!” Liam cried out, pushing his hips one last time and cuming freakishly hard.

In his arms, Zayn is literally crying, He is whimpering and huffing and blabbering a messy string of incomprehensible words. He’s got spit running down the side of his chin from his kiss-swollen open mouth and is clutching at Liam as if he was about to drown, and to be fair, Liam feels like he is drowning in his own sensations as well, so he holds Zayn back just as tight.

They always had epic sex, from the get go. Unlike most couples, they didn’t have an awkward first time, it was fantastic right from the start. Like something in their very DNA simply clicked when they got together.

Zayn starts running his hands everywhere in a feverish attempt to get back to reality.

“Say you love me Liam. Say you love only me, and that I am the best you will ever have. Say you can’t live without me. Say you love me…”

Liam feels him up in return with shaky hands and trembling lips and complies easily, he says he loves Zayn more than his own life, that he would never even want anyone else, that Zayn was made for him. He feels like crying too.  
Zayn is a mess. A fucking hot mess. He looks raw and swollen and flustered and sweaty and Liam wants to eat him, like genuinely, eat his very skin and his mouth and drink all fluids off his body. Sometimes, he is afraid of how much he wants him. He wants to cry, needs to let go somehow, he feels his heart is ready to burst

“Say you will always love me, say you will never leave me Liam. Say you will never mate any stupid Omega because you only want me.”

Liam swears, he promises. His whole chest is like bubbling with how strongly he feels.

They fall back gently on the covers in a big heap of limbs, twin grins splitting their faces and hands still caressing everywhere.

“I will not ever even look at anyone else babes. You’re the one for me, period.” Liam whimpers against Zayn’s ear.

He really wonders though, if it is just normal post-sex talk or if Zayn is somehow afraid that he could actually leave him. It’s stupid really, because Liam would never. Would not ever want to.  
He doesn’t mind what everyone is saying; that an alpha should be with an Omega, that he is twisted for wanting Zayn or that he just doesn’t know better, because Zayn is JUST a Beta. Well, then JUST fuck them, because Zayn is the best. He knows. He regularly feels like dying when he is in Zayn, like his heart would just explode. There is nothing better than being with Zayn, and he freaking loves the bones of this boy. And the hell with what everyone think.

“I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you, I love yh…” Liam falls asleep. His mantra dying on his lips.

* * *

 

Sat down on the school’s porch with a fag in his mouth and a bottle of whiskey and coke dosed way above any clubs standards, Aiden is having a great time.

“And then, the poor kitten is legit begging me to knot him, guys, I swear. Like, he is so out of his mind with lust or summat, and he is hot as fuck... “ Goes the story.

“And did you? Knot him?” Aiden asks, a bit exhilarated with his booze.

“Fuck yeah.” The college boy immediately answers. “I swelled inside him like a freaking sponge, you have no idea…”

“Did he like it?” Another boy asks.

“He was beyond himself you mean. I could hear him grit his teeth not to shout while I was dumping my load. Was so sexy.”

Aiden feels hot all over. He imagines the scene in his head, the big swollen knot stretching and pushing on silky moist walls, the groans of the alpha as he focuses on letting go of all that slippery seed and he pops a boner. In his defense, he tries to be discreet about it, tries to conceal it from the other guys view.

“How much did you cum? How big was your knot?” He chips in, curious.

His questions raise a round of laughter. And he sobers up instantly. Not the right questions. Fuck.

“You’re damn weird Grimshaw, I swear.” Says the guy with a story.

He tries to be casual about it, tries to deflect the attention.

“Well, just to know how much your Omega was able to take is all…”

He hopes it’s not too blatant that he is lying. It must be though.

“Did you ever fuck an Omega Grimshaw?” Someone with scrunched up eyes asks.

Aiden tries to pretends he is smoking for a couple of seconds, just to gain a bit of time. And then, when they all still look at him expectantly and he has no choice but to answer, he drops his usual fake story. Well, it’s not entirely fake, just a tad exaggerated.

“I was hooking up with my neighbour at some point. Harry Styles his name was. He had really nice dimples.”

After a stressful second, the guy with the story laughs wholeheartedly.

“Nice dimples hey? Did you found out about those while he was sucking your cock?”

Aiden gives half a smile and the guys just imagine whatever it is they want to imagine, the point is they leave Aiden alone.  
Once he is out of this mess, he just finishes off the last of his whiskey in one long gulp and excuses himself back to his dorm. Too bad really, he liked the stories, but he couldn’t allow himself to say whatever run through his head and he is too intoxicated to do a good job at filtering. At least he is not too intoxicated to recognize he isn’t himself or the situation could have become sticky.

He enters his room to find Louis, his roommate and Zayn chilling on Lou’s bed.

“Hey guys. What’s up?” He drops flopping down on his bed across the room.

“Not much, Aiden. You’re done listening to the dimwits degrading stories or…?” Louis starts off aggressively.

“What about you? Done trying to rope in this loudmouth Omega of yours?”

Zayn mumbles: “You guys have got some issues seriously!”

“I am not trying to rope Niall in and he is a really good guy. What is it to you anyway.” Louis replies aggressively.

A loaded moment drags on.

“Huf, let it go Lou. Anyway, everybody know Aiden hates omegas.” Zayn retorts.

“No he does not/No I don’t” Come together the answers of both boys.

Zayn shakes his hands in front of them.

“Okay, okay. I got it.”

Louis relaxes back onto his bed, eyes screwed on Aiden at the other side of the room.

“Aiden, would you go with us to the march tomorrow then?”

“The march for Omegas rights you mean?”

“Yeah.”

“Why would I?” He asks seriously.

“Well, why wouldn’t you? Plus, Zaynie and I are going, you could just tag along.”

Aiden snickers. “Malik you’re going?”

“Well yes.” The dark haired guy answers.”I mean, it’s a good cause. If you knew what Niall had been telling Lou about his Omega House. It’s utter shit man, like literal brainwashing and they don’t even learn anything useful. It’s crazy that this kind of archaïc system still exists in the age of mobile phone and internet.”

“Well let’s see if you still think the likes when some sweet little Omega steal your Alpha away from you.” Aiden doesn’t mean to be nasty like that. It just sort of pour out of his mouth without his consent, all his confusion and frustration is rushing out like a verbal diarrhea. At least, he reasons with himself, he is not violent or anything. Just bitter.

“Would love to see them try.” Zayn mocks.

And he has this beautiful blasting grin that bolster his confidence. Come to think of it, he might just have had sex.

“So, you’re coming Aiden? Do something right for once?”

Aiden doesn’t really need to think about it though his answer comes hesitantly.

“I don’t know Lou. I really don’t need anyone tagging me as an Omega Rights activist. I have enough problems as it is…”

“Would you shut up about yourself already. This is more important than your college popularity rate dimwit. This is about social evolution.”

“Well, you obviously don’t give two fucks about it but not everyone can allow themselves to be perceived as a weakling you see. And I get too much of that as it is.”

Louis is obviously shocked.

“Weakling?” He shouts. “For christ’s sake Aiden, you’re not gonna be pegged a weakling just for marching for Omega rights! Jesus! In any case refusing to do something because of social pressure is the proof of a weak mind.”

Aiden is drunk, he feels talktative, uninhibited and a bit overwhelmed with himself at that moment. It all comes rushing out.

“You don’t know shit Tomlinson because you’re way too up your own arse to realise that some of us get the short end of the stick! I’ve heard it all throughout my teen years, that people got it wrong about me or shit, that I was actually an Omega or a Beta. Even my own dad thinks I am too meek to be an Alpha, that it’s kind of funny to even imagine I could submit any Omega at all. If I go and march for their rights, let me tell you they’re all gonna laugh at me like it proves I am not fit to be an Alpha. Plus, I don’t have much to rely on with other Alphas. I don't know how you handle this, Lou. I just always feel out of place, man. All the time. Like I have no common ground with anyone, nothing to share.  
I don’t need to give them any more reasons to cast me aside.”

Zayn at least, deflates slightly. He crosses over to put a reassuring hand on Aiden’s shoulder.

“They are stupid brutes Aiden. You should know better than to listen to them.”

Aiden honestly feels like shit right now.

“I still want to fit in with them too.” He speaks his heart. He knows Zayn is trustworthy and fit to understand since Liam most probably went through the same bullshit. “You might not care because you’re a Beta hence you can do what the fuck you want and Louis, well nobody would doubt a guy who knotted an Omega until she bled out at freaking fourteen. They all think you are a goddamn hero Lou...”

Louis looks at him as if he wants to murder him. Or like he wants to off himself, it’s hard to say. His lips twist something ugly and he just turns his head away and doesn’t answer.  
Zayn sighs deeply.

“They’re fucked. And so are you, if you think this is normal” He puts his hand away from Aiden, stands up and crosses back to Louis, kisses his best friend on the cheek and heads off to bed. He’s heard enough bullshit for the night, he says.

And just like that, Aiden is left alone with Louis. A very pissed off Louis, who just shuts the lights off and slips himself between the sheets.  
Aiden has no choice but to flop down onto his cushions and try to sleep but his ears are buzzing despite the grumpy silence, and his head is swimming in too much alcohol and in the silence, it feels like the ground is moving a bit. He doesn’t like Louis pissed off at him. He doesn’t like Louis pissed off at all. So he tries to wait it out, maybe if it is Louis reaching out to him... Louis is the prettiest when he’s happy. He’s got the most endearing smile. It’s too quiet. Louis. His feathery caramel fringe. Piercing blue irises. It’s too hot in their room, isn’t it? They shouldn't have left the heaters on all afternoon. Cute round nose. Crinkled eyes. He likes Louis a lot. He likes Louis. Louis who is not saying anything.

“Louis…” He slurs in the deep deep silence.

No answer.

“Louis?”

Quiet.

“Louuuuuu?”

Finally. “Go to sleep Aiden.”

But Aiden is wide awake.

“Lou, I’m sorry you know. I was a cunt for bringing that old story up again.”

A rustling of fabric.

“It’s fine Aiden. Now sleep.”

But it is not fine now, is it?

“I’m sorry I upset you Lou.”

“Sleep.”

He can not, so instead, he lifts himself up and scampers to Louis’ bed, then sits down on the edge when Louis calls his name with a warning undertone. He has to obtain forgiveness for his sins.

“I wasn’t blaming you. Please don’t be pissed at me…”

“Nobody is ever blaming me.” Louis sneers with an edge of despair.

As if on cue, Aiden slips himself beside him.

“What’ya doing?”

“Just cuddles… Please.” Aiden begs when he lock his arms around Louis.  
The other alpha finally turns around and towards his roommate.

“Aiden…” He whispers tiredly. “I don’t want to play with you...”

“Just say you forgive me please. I can’t go to sleep if you’re angry.” He knows his breath is hot on Louis’ cheek. He hopes he doesn’t smell too much like alcohol.  
Louis hesitantly hugs him back for a second.

“It is not your fault Aiden. It’s myself I’m pissed at. We should just sleep now, forget about it”

Louis rubs broad circles on his back and Aiden preens happily. Despite the rippling muscles under so thin golden skin, Louis is gentle, always. He never initiates anything. Ever.

“You are a good person Louis.” Aiden whispers onto his neck. And he kisses him just there, on the pulse point. It is so soft and overheated.

‘Please, Aiden.... Don’t.”

It must be the booze, really, ‘cause he is not so forward usually.

“It’s fine.” Aiden says, starting to kiss repeatedly every inch of skin he can reach and caress Louis’ sides.  
The blondish rolls onto his back and lets himself be fondled.

“I don’t want to give you false hopes.”  
“I know.”  
“I am not like you, Aiden.”  
“I know.”

There after, they don’t speak anymore. Aiden rolls himself half on top of Louis and kisses him everywhere. Except on the mouth, because that is not what they do. Everything is scorching hot; And a bit stuffy so they remove their clothings. Louis doesn’t touch him much, he runs his fingers through his roommate hair once, lay his hand on Aiden left shoulder for about three minutes ten, kisses a collarbone, that’s it. Aiden does the touching, a lot of it. He is utterly intoxicated by the feel of skin, the barely there hairs rising under his fingertips and then, crawling down the mattress, he breathes Louis in, he can’t help it, Louis smells so strong, so entirely masculine, like flesh, fresh sweat and soap and salt. Aiden has never been one for sweet. After a long contemplative pause, he starts caressing Louis' penis and balls with his tongue, rubbing his whole face on the other boy’s crotch. It should be disgusting, an Alpha's dick; but how can it be when Louis grows hard? Aiden goes down on him, just so he can feel the member swell and get heavier in his mouth. He works up a rhythm easily, it all comes too naturally to him, bobbing wildly up and down with his mouth watering so much he is drooling filthily all over himself and soon, too soon, his roommate climaxes with a barely audible low groan. Louis does not knot at all; He tastes a tad bitter, or maybe that is just how Aiden feels.

When Louis is spent he falls asleep immediately. Meanwhile, Aiden resting on his back beside him, waits a long time for his world to come crashing down.  
It doesn’t.


	2. Rescue Aid Society

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Some shocking discoveries, some marching, and Louis finally gets to meet Harry.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi folks!
> 
> Hope you're all, all right!  
> Thank you for keeping up with this story, thanks for your feedback, nice encouragement and comments. It really helps me to adjust where need be. 
> 
> If you like this story, feel free to leave kudos, or comments. And if you have advises or concerns, I am always open to suggestion, don't hesitate to reach out to me, you're sure to receive an answer.  
> Thanks again to everyone who's reading, Hope you enjoy!
> 
> !! STRONG TRIGGER for this chapter:  
> \- Indoctrination  
> \- Non-consensual drug-use (sort of)  
> \- Forced confinment  
> And of course - Dystopian World including strong power inbalance between genders.  
> Please, always keep your own safety in mind before reading, if you think these themes might be a trigger for you, please proceed with caution. 
> 
> If you're all good to carry on, I really hope you like this chapter! (Really feel like I bled it out).

“Louis said he would be marching for Omega rights today. Seriously, he is the coolest person I ever talked to.”

Niall is preening the next morning while they’re having breakfast.

“Thank you mate.” Harry retorts somber.

“Oh, come on Harry. You know what I mean! It’s just he’s older and he knows everything and he’s clever and witty. You, I can rely on. It’s different.” Niall rationalizes while drinking his glass of milk. He then wiped his mouth with his shirt sleeve which made Harry frown despite himself.

“I might not be clever or witty but at least I have table manners!”.

Harry emptied his own glass of milk and made ready to just leave the table altogether, annoyed with his best friend, but then, changed his mind at the last minute and sat back down, he sure shouldn’t be the one walking away.

He didn’t have to wait too long for his friend to try and meet him halfway.

“Alright, Louis is the coolest **Alpha** I ever talked to. And you are my Omega best friend.”

“And you, mine.” Harry conceded.

Now that his belly was full, he was much more open to negotiation.

“Are you in love with him?” He asked, showing interest for the first time.

“I don’t know… Don't think so.” Niall shied away. “I am not sure that it is what we are about… I just like talking to him a lot is all. I admire him you could say.”

“Admire? I thought you were doing the nasty with him…” Harry laughed, reaching across the table to pinch a cheek.

Niall pushed his friend’s head away, amused.

“You are the nasty one Styles, really... Think I didn’t hear you dreaming about your first knot last night!”

‘Jesus, you’re disgusting!” Harry said with a repressed smile. “Besides I would never…”

“Keep telling yourself, pal.”

Harry threw bread crumbs to his best friend’s head, pulled a face at him and they finished breakfast discreetly fighting with food and laughing wholeheartedly.

 

* * *

The first time they meet Nick Grimshaw, the rogue Omega is giving them all the pep talk before the march, perched on a tree’s highest branch with his fist up in the air and contemplating them from above. His whole figure is haloed with some glorious light from the rising sun which makes him slightly hard to decipher. He talks in easy words and short sentences, but with intent and weight to them.

Through the week he leads them to march on Buckingham Palace, on the House of Parliament and on 10 Downing Street, his stubborn will and cheerful hope never once faltering.

When they get to the Prime Minister’s house, he dodges in between guards to freaking **knock** on  the door, essentially shell shocking everyone with the goddamn NERVE of his.

Louis thinks he is an over the top walking disaster really, Zayn finds him highly irritating and Liam admits to a slight admiration. Aiden, him, is completely fascinated.

* * *

The classroom was eerily calm, as it usually was in the mornings.

“To round up our chapter; We’ve seen how Omegas are creatures of need and are biologically more inclined to seek attention.”

Niall bent closer to Harry’s ear to whisper.

“I hate the way they talk about us like we’re not even in the room.”

Harry shrugged and gestured for his friend to keep quiet before he got them into troubles as he so often did.

“But they should always try to rein in their overflowing emotions so as not to embarrass their Alphas. For, as we studied and I really hope you remember, it is very important: Alphas are guided by their Reason and as such have difficulty dealing with feelings...” Their teacher left a long pause at this point, allowing the concept to sink in properly before she continued: “We are going to end our course here today, BUT, please do read next chapter, we will study how omegas scarcity make them a very marketable product and the moral limits that this pose on them… Class dismissed.”

Niall rushed out of class as if his head had caught fire. He always had been a bit mischievous -verging on indocility, according to their teachers-, but Harry had a feeling that Louis’ influence was doing little to help his friend “rein it in”.

It was made obvious by the end of the day. The whole class tended to get more raucous as the day dragged on, but Niall was positively insufferable by the time they got to their parenting class.

While Harry was trying to studiously bath his doll, Niall kept splashing him with his own baby-bath water.

“Oi! Are you quite finished?! I’m trying to get a job done here?!”

“Ow, look at you! Perfect omega Harry training to be the perfect Mummy!” Niall mocked. ‘Take a break Hazza, you know I will mate you if nobody else want to.” He splashed him in the face while adding: “But not if you’re boring!”

Harry wiped his brows with a murderous look. Niall was growing more dissipated by the minute.

“Quit it Ni! This is not funny! Besides, it’s not boring wanting to be a good parent, is it?”

Niall got his drenched doll out of the bath and carelessly abandoned it on the table.

“Niall!” Harry was scandalized.

“I never said it was proper boring! But you’re missing an important point my friend.” Niall said in a very learned tone. “If omegas have a natural tendency to submission just because they’re omegas and while this specific behaviour has no biologic root whatsoever, I can’t see why they would not have a genetic tendency to be good parents. Think about it! That would make more sense in a biological way, right? Since we are the evolutionary anomalies who can carry assbabies! Would make sense we naturally know how to care for them at least. Hence this class is completely pointless!” He quickly toweled his doll nonetheless as if he could not help himself. “ And boring.”

Harry half wanted to rip his head off, serously.

“Don’t call them assbabies, Niall! You’re the WORST I swear! Anyway… Is your new Alpha Louis putting all those profound thoughts in this beautiful head of yours now?!”

Niall looked at him incredulously.

“Jesus, Haz. It’s not because my head is beautiful that it can’t serve any other purpose! And why are you so damn uptight today, hmm? Actually, you’ve been grumpy for like two days already… Have your heat coming babes?! Hormones working you silly?!”

Beside himself, Harry opened the baby lotion flask and grunting, emptied it on his friend with a deadly look and just this tiny bit of absolute satisfaction.

They got interrupted by their outraged teacher, who physically removed them both from class screaming bloody murder and swearing they were her worst students _ever_ and that neither of them would ever get mated!

She ditched them in the corridor with the heavy silence settling between them. Niall, still removing soap from his eyes exploded in uncontrollable laughter and Harry glancing at his crinkled grimacing face could do nothing but follow. Laughing and laughing until they were both tumbling to the ground, holding hands.

“Well, why, Niall… You got us excluded from class… Once again…”

Niall snorted.

“Yet again you just can’t control how much you love me.” Joked Niall. “But I promise I’ll hand-feed you tonight as a reward. For being such a good boy.”

Harry snorted and preened, all at the same time, which was a weird look frankly.

* * *

It was nice. Being hand-fed. Being cared for. Nurtured. Loved. A delicious warmth invaded Harry, he could not tell if it was a physical thing or something entirely in his head, but it made his whole body tingled, made him want his scalp scratched and back kneaded.

 “Good boy, Harry.” Mocked Niall at what he thought was a comical exaggeration while his best friend was almost panting, lips bloody red, moist and parted in sweet exhalations.

 And then it started. It should not have been a surprise, but the suddenness of it was.

Harry’s rear went from dry and closed up to moist and fluttering repeatedly, as if a second heart was beating down there.

Niall was quick to catch the smell, and roaring up, tried to hoist Harry to their room discreetly. But if he had caught the smell, so had the teachers in charge.

 “Mr Horan, where do you think you’re going?!”

 Niall tried to ignore her and pressed on, Harry taped to him, clutching at him in despair.

 “Get me out of here?” The younger pleaded.

 But too soon, the teacher was upon them stopping the boys progression.

 “Harry is not feeling well Miss. I’ll put him to bed.” The blond omega tried to pass by their teacher, to no avail.

She almost tenderly removed Harry from him, the curly haired no more than a ragdoll at this point.

“I understand your concerns, Mr Horan. I sincerely do. But rules are the same for everyone and they are not to be tampered with. No heat-stricken student is allowed into the rooms.You know that. It could set you or your comrades off early.”

“Miss. Please…” Beseeched Niall. 

‘Go back to your seat and eat something Niall. We will take care of this.” The voice was almost affectionate.Tears welled up in the blond omega’s eyes as his friend was dragged out of the dining room without a struggle.

As soon as he was pulled away from the comforting presence of his best friend though, Harry had started resisting. Kicking increasingly and screaming bloody murder, he had to be all but yanked all the way down to the hospital wing. But the real panic only kicked off when in sight of the isolation cells.

“NO! Please, no! No, no. NOOOOO!”

The racing beat of his heart and anguished tears were pavlovian reflex. The fight or flight reflex reared up and Harry’s struggling escalated into something feral and desperate. It only served to attract the unwanted attention of the nurse who came to his teacher’s rescue.

“There, there… Easy, Mr Styles.” Were the two women trying to coax, but Harry’s ears were buzzing and the sounds of his own hurried shallow breathing rendered the soothing words inaudible to him. The ever growing amount of air he was letting in was not quite reaching his lungs as panic kept creeping up. The nurse and teacher teamed up to have him out of his clothes, and when he was completely naked, they forcefully threw him into the cell.  

Before he could stand up and run for the door; it was already closed, so.that all his momentum only helped him crash harder on the locked entrance.

Groggy with the hit and tears streaming freely, he started to plea, to beg, to implore, to pray.

 

“Please! Please! NO! Don’t leave me! I’m begging you, please!”

“Have some MERCY! I’ll be good, I swear, I’ll be good! Don’t leave me here!”

“Don’t leave me alone, pleaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaase!”,

“I can’t be alone! I’ll die! It’ll kill me!”

“PLEASE”

“Nonononononononono.”

 

All of it was for naught.

* * *

On Wednesday night, it becomes evident that all the marching serves to little purpose. The movement is too restricted, participants are not numerous enough and no important body politics agree to properly meet them 

As Aiden completely unexpected but relentless admiration for Nick Grimshaw allows Louis, Zayn and Liam to grow personally closer to the leader of the movement despite their best effort, the boys are privy to this very bitter fact: if the movement does not grow quickly, it is never going to achieve anything at all. That night, the mood is rather gloomy..

As most solution to an intricate problem, the solution to this one comes from the least expected place; Discord.

This evening, Louis is online trying to calm down his virtual omega friend who apparently is heavily guilt-tripping over one thing or another, and Aiden can’t even pretend he is not jealous of the attention. All the understanding, the soothing words and calming tone, coming from a place of good heart and good will, he never had this from Louis; The benevolence. It always feels like he has to coax the brunette into even the smallest attention. So he lashes out.

“What is it now? Did he loose his pacifier?”

Louis looks at him horrified. But at least, he looks at him, thinks Aiden bitterly.

“Could you give it a rest Aiden. You don’t know a thing! You can’t begin to imagine what those kids are going through even as we speak!”

“Well, you’re a bit harsh now, ain’t you? I am marching for their rights, same as you, I even made friend with Nick, so don’t pretend like you are the only one with a heart!”

“My point, exactly! Now you know more about them, you should cut me some slack..”

“Should I really? The fact I am convinced the way society treat them is not right does not mean I have to be wooed by every single one of them. I mean, those kids are pretty useless. At least, Nick is doing something, right! I can’t commiserate with them if they don’t want to gear up at all!”.

“And who said they don’t want to?!” Louis is very red in the face, very obviously pissed off. “They are secluded in their boarding houses in the countryside and brainwashed, they can’t do much so piss off!”

Aiden bites his tongue in earnest regret when Louis plugs off his laptop and goes off, probably to sleep at Zayn’s. There will be no making it up to him tonight and Aiden goes to bed in anguished frustration.

 

The next day, he wakes up to Louis’ text: “U wer right. Let’s free the Os, so they can fight 4 their own right!”, followed by another from Nick that reads: “Hi Aiden! How is my fav’ Alpha this morning? Your friend Louis came up with a brilliant idea. So I called in some favours, and we are going to have a very mediatic power action in an Omega boarding House today. That will allow us to legitimate the movement, win over new marchers and raise awareness all at once.I hope you’re ready for groundbreaking… Call me when you wake up xx. Grimmy”

Of course, they end up going to Niall’s boarding house.

* * *

Harry didn't know how long he already spent in the white-washed, twelve feet by twelve fully padded cell. Enough time at least to feel disorientated. Lied down on his back to counter the dizziness and sweating profusely, he could feel the slick gushing out of his backside, the constant, regular, contracting of his rim’s muscles and the maddening sensation of this pent-up energy that no amount of contorting or kicking around or shouting could rid him of. He had intensifying shivers and the tingles around his crotch needed scratching.

Unfortunately, once he started touching his cock, there was no going back. Rubbing the soft skin cautiously, he swiftly brought himself to a climaxless orgasm. His penis erupted in sensationless pitiful spurts that pooled on the hollow of his hipbone.

Even though for the life of his, he couldn’t stop rubbing, the whole area quickly started to feel sore and agony blazed through his whole body.

The cold shivers were like half a billion minuscules insects crawling UNDER his skin.

When the itch on his channel became so distracting and obsessive, and just painfully too much he started fingering himself, desperately scratching at his inner walls, not to bring himself off but to alleviate the intense irritation. His head was spinning, his body cramping up tight with exhaustion, his brow hot and throbbing and he felt so, so, so overwhelmed.

* * *

 They come in numerous enough and followed by medias so no one has the guts to try and stop them.

They disrupt classes without a care and the irony and beauty of it is that the same bullshit the Omegas have been taught all their lives about submitting to Alphas lead them to follow the crowd down to the main hall without a second thought.

 Nick Grimshaw is standing tall halfway through the staircase, staring down at the assembly. He has Aiden and a couple of his Alphas friends with him, and suddenly he asks them:

 “What do you want to do with your lives?”

They each individually answer; Some want to be politicians or make some real good money, other want to be University teachers, profilers, chemist, deal with international relationships and whatnot… Then, Nick comes down the staircase and he asks the same exact question to random omegas students.

Most of them don’t answer anything at all, be it shyness, determent, or the sad reality.

One of them, though, answers: “I want to find a strong Alpha who will love me and be his for always.That is all the happiness I wish for in this world.”

 

Edifyingly enough, a loud silence follows.

* * *

At some point, Harry’s  muscles went so rigid it now felt like violent electric shocks were coursing through him. His sweat had long since turned cold on his feverish skin and he felt so tired his vision was swimming. If the whole ordeal would have relent for JUST a couple hours sleep, the unvarying blindingly blunt light above his head would have deprived him of even this little respite.

The sheer intensity of everything was entirely brutal, damaging. It had him screaming so loud in despair and for so long that his throat felt like sandpaper and brought uncontrollable tears to his eyes.

His arsehole was probably tore, he could feel the ferocious pain of it even though he couldn't raise his head to check for blood. And his fingers in deep kept scratching mercilessly. His penis and testicles were ablaze but he kept tugging at them. It was complete divorce of the body and the mind, utter alienation for he wanted it to stop with all his might, but could not bring himself to.  

Whining miserably and desiring nothing more than to just knock himself off somehow, to turn this whole horrific machinery of a body off, he started bumping his head on the ground with all the feeble strength he could muster.

He thought “I can do this.”. He could put himself to sleep. So he hit, and hit and hit and hit and hit again. But it’s the soaring pain of his nails piercing the tender skin of his genitals that gave him that extra final push, and in an inhuman effort he swung his head forcefully onto the ground.

Agony exploded behind his eyelids and panting he (God almighty thank you) drifted to unconsciousness.

* * *

 Niall started to feel ill-at-ease the moment the weird guy on the stairs asked his comrades about their life goals. And though Niall found the result of this inquiry appalling, he, himself probably wouldn’t have any better answer. Hiding behind Louis, he wished to be forgotten. And it worked, for the most part.

 He stayed put while the guy -Louis said his name was Nick Grimshaw- went through their “uneducative” program. The crowd seemed particularly scandalized that they had cooking, parenting, cleaning and sewing lessons and no maths, english, economy or science. But sewing was the least of their problem really. The sexual education class was the real b*tch, but no fear, Nick Grimshaw was there to detail, book in hand, how Omegas were supposed to submit to their alphas, be agreeable always, docile and ready to take their knots whenever the Alphas wanted because Alphas knew best what Omegas needed, their heats were proof of that. Hearing it said in this mocking tone and booed by the crowd made Niall feel sick in his stomach.

 Then only, Nick came to him. Louis spared Grimshaw a warning glance, but Nick only gave the Alpha a smile before gently guiding Niall up the stairs with him.

“Don’t be afraid kitten, we only want to help. May I ask your name?”

Niall put his best effort into not trembling.

“‘M’ Niall, sir.”

“Well, my friend, let’s not get all formal, I’m not THAT much older than you. You can just call me Nick.”

Niall nodded.

“Would you allow me to ask you a couple of questions angel?”

Nod.

“So what do you guys generally do here on the weekends?”

Niall hesitated. “Just, like, watching TV I guess, or play games like well, cards or summat…”

“Nice. What kind of movie do you like to watch for exemple?”

“There’s only romance movies on the TV, so… Well romcoms.”

“I see. Do you know why that is, why can you only watch romcoms?”

A pause. “It’s because other movies might not be a good influence on us, they say.”

When the crowd erupted in laughter, Niall snapped. “Don’t you laugh!”

“Don’t laugh guys. Do you think it’s fair?” Then turning to Niall: “Would you say that it might be because you guys tend to be more raucous during the weekends?”

“Probably, yes.”

“Any other time?”

“I don’t know. I can’t be definitive but I feel, like, hmmm, right before meals you know. Might be because we’re hungry…”

“And any moment do you feel is really easy to focus on the contrary?”

“The first couple of classes I’d say, they’re always the easiest. Just after breakfast.”

The answer was a given to Niall. Not everybody in the crowd seemed to agree with the statement though, only specifically his classmates.

“Okay, Niall. Thank you. Something entirely different now. You can choose not to answer, or course, if you think it’s too personal, but I would really appreciate your help here. You can give an approximation..”

Niall braced himself.

“So how many days do your heats generally last, outside of school?”

Reddening wildly, Niall considered not answering. And that is when he noticed it; That the most curious looking people didn’t seem to be the alphas, it was his own comrades. That was the reason why he chose to answer;

“I don’t know. Like a day or two, tops.”

“And how long do they last when you’re in school lovey?”

“Three full days… Sometimes more. Though rarely.”

“And do you know why there might be a recurring day gap?”

“Not a clue.”

“Want me to tell you?”

Niall was hesitant. He was not stupid, right. He had gotten the pattern and he had a feeling he would not like the reason…

“Did you ever question what they feed you at breakfast? The milk maybe?”

“Well, the milk is delicious in here. I don’t think you’re ri…”

 

“They put Alpha seed in your morning milk, guys.”

 

… Ah. … Really?... … … It can’t be… … … ...

“Yes, they DO. And you know why? Because it keeps you lot docile and open to suggestion, so it won’t require half as much efforts to force you to internalize all the bullshit they teach you. And if it intensifies and extends your heats, it’s only a minor inconvenient, isn’t it? They only have to lock you up, for example, ALL ON YOUR OWN. Actually, it’s even better if you feel like a needy, dirty, unsatisfied bitch afterwards, because this way you’ll be all the more desperate to pocket an alpha and the best way to ensure that… Is to listen to their advices. If you don’t believe me go and check the kitchens. ”

Grimmy gets down the stairs and shouts to the crowd.

“I HAVE BEEN THERE! I KNOW! How much you fucking want to die after a heat! I’ve told you marchers all this week it was brainwashing and torture, right? Well, guess what? I wasn’t exaggerating....”

Niall runs down the stairs to Louis, horrified, legs shaky.

The silence that explodes is like a bomb. Deafening.

* * *

 When Harry came back to his senses, he had absolutely no energy whatsoever left in his body, and no voice either. Even blinking was an effort and he simply couldn’t move a limb. It was like those people whose brains awaken before their bodies and so they have to wait it out, paralyzed in fear, trapped in their own bodies.

He could smell the acrid air, pungent with the scent of salted seed, sweet slick, metallic blood and bitter tears, and overall the stench of sweat, so thick he could taste it in his mouth had his stomach churning..

His skin was caked with his own dried out bodily fluids and he was lying in a literal pool of his own. He felt disgusting. And he was.

A paralytic, pathetic, filthy, over-needy bitch with horrific aches all over and a killer headache.

Well, actually, he at least had enough strength to cry.

* * *

“They called the fucking cops!” Shouts a random. 

“Well that means, you lot have a choice Either you stay knowing just how far they’re ready to go or you can leave and find out for yourself how else you can get by in life. Neither is gonna be easy. But at least you get to choose. It’s now or never!”

That’s how Grimmy closes his mediatic show, still looming from up the stairs.

A strange sort of unchoregraphed chaos ensues. Everybody wanting out as quick as possible. Nick and Aiden tread down to where Louis, Zayn, Liam and a very shocked Niall are waiting.

“Come on, we’ve got to leave.” Says Aiden. “Now!”

Louis reaches back for Niall, he tries not to push him, tries hard even though he wants his boy out of this hell. But the choice is not his to make.

“You’re coming Nialler?”

The Irish seems hesitant but he takes his hand and Louis smiles at him through the craziness going on.

“Let’s go!” Aiden shouts at him. The other alpha is very obviously on the edge. It’s not because of the cops either. He is jealous, of course he is. Louis likes to pretend like he can’t tell, like he doesn’t notice, but he does. He never meant to break Aiden’s heart, though it seems to be the path they’re heading these days and that’s too bad, but it is what it is.

They’re reaching for the door in the panic of students and marchers fending off to the exit when Niall suddenly stops dead on his track.

“What is it sunshine?” Asks Grimmy.

Niall lets Louis hand loose.

“My best friend Harry…”

“Yeah, what about him?”

“He’s in the ward. I can’t just leave him here!”

“Oh come on! The police is on its way, we have to get a move on kiddo.” Interrupts Aiden.

“Shut up Aiden!” Louis is glaring so much Aiden must feel it piercing through him. “Let’s go grab your friend Nialler. Where is this ward?”

“No way! Fuck that!” Shouts Aiden, before retreating on his own.

Louis, followed by Zayn and Liam just ignores him and pushes Niall out of the stream of people.

“Lead the way.”

They go through corridors, ever gloomier, until they are in a dark grey hallway with no windows and lined up with reinforced narrow doors. Niall start opening them one by one, checking for his friend. Louis shudders. This place gives him the creeps.

Zayn murmurs to his boyfriend and best friend: “If he’s just been in heat, maybe it’s better you two stay behind and I’ll handle him with Niall?”

Louis looks at him incredulously.

“After hearing it all, you still... “

Zayn does not look like he understands.

“We’re not animals, okay? We can control ourselves.” He says with a fiery edge.

 

He pushes through, just on time to catch his first ever sight of the naked glory that is Harry Styles.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Allright so I'm sorry I had to cut at this point, but the lengtht was really getting out of hand.  
> Guess, the first actual conversation between our darling angels will be for next week.  
> Hope I didn't shock you too much. Or maybe hope I did actually... I know I focus heavily on graphic description of horrific stuff here, but I had to in order not to banalise what they're living.
> 
> Once again, if you have any comments, concerns, questions, or if you want to encourage me you can leave a quick feedback, it always helps and it's always cool convos and very much appreciated! 
> 
> Have a brilliant day/night! <3


	3. Sleeping Beauty

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shameless Ziam fluff, the infamous Larry Stylinson is rising, the guys are dorks, Niall makes a decision and Harry bear the fallout of his school being shut down.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi guys! I'm really sorry this chapter comes in SO SO late, but it's a pretty long one and I was so busy all week :( . Which doesn't justify tardiness I'll admit, but I hope you find the strenght in your heart to forgive me! <3 <3
> 
> I've wanted to launch some sort of a game on this chapter because I thought it would be funny;  
> THE GAME: So on this chapter are quite a lot references to IRL Larry Stylinson and if you can count them, it would be so funny to see if you can find the ones I placed intentionally and/or if anyone find some that I didn't intend to place. You can either PM me your answer or leave it in the comment, that could be fun.
> 
> As well. If anyone can come up with Chapter names from Disneys movies or pop culture references? I would defo dedicace the chapter to them. For even though I know where I'm going with this story I don't have titles planned for chapters to come so if you have any ideas you would like to share!
> 
> If you're into the A/B/O verse, I would like to recommend you guys my favorites so far:   
> \- Louis Love from Oh Slashy! (It's great, well written and and has heaps of cool companion pieces)  
> \- With Love Comes Strange Circumstances from Mediaville (Short and effective!)  
> I can rec you new ones when I stumble upon them, but from the ABO universe those were my absolute favorties!
> 
> As always a MASSIVE massive thank you to everyone commenting, subscribing or leaving kudos, because that spurs me on and motivates me. As well, I really love to have every one's opinion so don't hesitate, I will be sure to answer you!  
> You have all my love and all my respect! Enjoy the chaper! <3

_ They go through corridors, ever gloomier, until they are in a dark grey hallway with no windows and lined up with reinforced narrow doors. Niall starts opening them one by one, checking for his friend. Louis shudders. This place gives him the creeps. _

_ Zayn murmurs to his boyfriend and best friend: “If he’s just been in heat, maybe it’s better you two stay behind and I’ll handle him with Niall?” _

_ Louis looks at him incredulously.  _

_ “After hearing it all, you still... “ _

_ Zayn does not look like he understands. _

_ “We’re not animals, okay? We can control ourselves.” He says with a fiery edge.  _

_ He pushes through, just on time to catch his first ever sight of the naked glory that is Harry Styles. _

 

* * *

 

Harry is splayed out onto the cold cold ground, looking so small and soft and wrecked, Louis’ heart seizes. And that’s when the smell hits him like a brick wall, so thick and sweet, and pure that something primal inside the alpha purs. This odour clouds his judgement and all but incapacitate him for the better of a minute though he can still hear Niall talking to him, from far away. 

“Louis?! Louis? You’re alright?”

Louis snaps back to reality. 

“Yes. Let’s get out of here.” He mumbles, trying to downplay his little moment. 

“Harry cannot move right now. Damn he probably can’t even talk…Heats can vacant you like this.” Explains Niall.

And surely enough, when Louis looks down at the boy he finds him looking at them with big doe eyes full of incomprehension.

“I’ll carry him.” He says, bending down to the ground to scoop the boy and lift him bridal style. The kid tries to pull his arm around the alpha shoulder, but uncoordinated limb fail him and his fingers sticky with oh so sweet slick jam awkwardly into Louis neck.

 

“Oops”, says the boy in a barely audible utterly destroyed voice.

 

“Hi.” Louis smiles at him warmly, trying to be as comforting as he can when he takes the boy outside the room.“We’re here to help you..” 

 

Zayn is waiting there with a big blanket and the two of them unexpectedly tuck in the very  naked new addition to their group before running through the halls for the exit. Once they’re out the corridor, the odour of heat becomes thankfully way less debilitating. 

The police is already in the building and Louis heart picks up, thinking they’re gonna get arrested for sure and already preparing in his head what he would say, how he would downplay everything and use Nick Grimshaw as his mitigating circumstance. He wonders if the boy in his arms can feel his heart drumming wildly in his chest.

But Niall, just as smart as Louis thought he was, leads them through the fire exit outside the building and half crouched not to be noticed they pass the smaller back iron gates and find themselves in a deserted countryside road.

“Where are you going?!” 

They all flip around with bated breath. 

Aiden is here, waiting for them leaning on the wall like he is bloody chilling, playing on his phone and not even looking at them. The epitome of forced nonchalance.

“I thought you left already.” Louis almost accuses.

“Well, I wouldn’t look a horse in the mouth too much now. I booked us a cab, it’ll be here in a minute so better walk away a bit.”

Not knowing if he is happy that Aiden waited for them or pissed that he did, Louis just follows in silence as they put some distance between the Omega House and themselves. In his arms Harry fell asleep, or maybe he passed out. Louis sends a worried look over to Niall who dismisses it with a smile. 

They can barely cram themselves in the SUV cab and the ride back is awkwardly silent, everybody soaking in the events of the day. 

Zayn and Liam are cuddled close, looking at each others with reassuring smiles, having one of their elaborate silent conversations, completely absorbed in one another. Niall sulks on the other side, looking through the windows with a dejected and sad expression, like he is about to cry -and truly, Louis would not blame him, with the amount of life changing informations he received in such a short span of time, he has every right to feel overwhelmed-. Aiden, in the middle, had been jittery and had looked ill at ease since he caught sight of Louis carrying a naked post-heat omega, which probably doesn’t sit well with his jealousy.

Harry Styles is still out for the count, (probably will be for a couple more hours) tucked in close to Louis’ side with his head on the alpha’s shoulder and full weight pressing on the brunette.

In the boredom and pain that is their ride back, Louis eventually can fully take Harry in.

He is covered, drenched in fluids best left unknown but manages to look innocently filthy. His lips are blood red, moist and plush and damn inviting, but his cheeks are flushed like ones of the poetic virgin. He is languidly spread by Louis side, but tucked in a comfy blanket like a child on sick leave from school. He is so antithetical that Louis struggles to wrap his head around it, can’t seem to reconcile the purity and voluptuousness blending in easy that is the essence of Harry Styles. 

He is goddamn Beautiful. Louis decides while playing with the curls of his hair. He keeps doing so until they arrive in London.

* * *

 

When they get to Louis’ University’s Campus, the brunette lead everyone up to his and Aiden’s room. He was expecting Aiden to complain but the other alpha is unusually quiet, so it turns out for the best.

After lying Harry down easy on his own bed, Louis and all the others sit down in stiff silence for a long moment, exchanging confused looks.  

“Alright.” Says Zayn. “So what now?”

“I don’t want to go back to school.” Niall says immediately in a somehow broken tone.

Louis wraps his friend in a comforting one-arm hug.

“You won’t have to Nialler. You can stay here as long as you want.“

Aiden looks flabbergasted. He huffs:

“Well, they do have to finish school though…” 

“What for? For all they learn in their Omega house, they will learn way more staying here and just reading through my textbooks. Anyway, I never believed in being book-smart, it’s the street-smart kids who really nail it in life.”

“Says a University student with easy access to book knowledge.” Zayn chips in sarcastically.

Silence.

“I mean it though. Niall, you don’t have to go back. Don’t let anyone force you to.” Louis insists.

“Right. It wouldn’t be fair. We’ll have you covered here if you want to stay. You have my word.” Liam is a man of very few words. He’s not very demonstrative either (except with Zayn) and he never expressed a clear opinion on what was going on so far. Louis had  assumed he was just tagging along with Zayn who was himself tagging along with Louis but today had changed pretty much everything and apparently, he got it all wrong with Liam, the alpha seemed pretty concerned by Omegas’s fate.

Louis glances at Harry who is still deep in his slumber, completely void of any energy and he wonders how hard must that be, being all on your own with no one even checking up on you or try to comfort you; Suffering excruciating, profound and sort of humiliating pains for days on end, trapped in a small cubby-hole-like room. And going through this every month, with the terrifying knowledge that you cannot prevent it from happening again.

If the growing pains he used to have on his prick when he presented as an alpha are any indicative of the level of pain… He feels dizzy just imaging. Because he always heard that the omegas got it worse, that the amount of pain they were going through if their heats are left unattended would literally kill any alpha (according to science) and his growing pains were only a matter of hours in worst cases, an omega heat apparently lasted about three DAYS. 

Louis feels genuinely sick…

“Louis?” Niall voices his concerns. “Is it really okay with you guys? I don’t want to impose… I’m gonna call my mum and try to go back home but in the meantime…’

“It’s fine Niall. You can do whatever you want, there is no rush. I mean, it’s no trouble, we have enough beds. You can share mine with Harry for as long as you guys want and I’ll sleep at Zayn’s or share with Aiden or summat. Or you can go back home if you feel like you need your family. No fuss. Just do whatever you feel like, you’re not imposing…”

Aiden remarkably doesn’t speak up. Which only proves how much things definitely changed today…

Niall gives them the brightest smile. He looks so mischievous even when he does not intend to. Louis loves that, really, it’s heart-warming.

“D’you think I could maybe join in on the marching and protesting as well?” The blond Irish looks expectant. 

Before Louis can even open his mouth to manifest his delighted approbation Aiden has Nick Grimshaw over the phone.

“Uh-uh…. Mhhh…” Silence “Yeah, okay, granted…. “ Half a silence. A smirk.  “That’s great, Nick. I’ll let the guys we have here with us know as well. See you on Monday.” 

Aiden hangs up.They all look up at him expectantly and the tosser just smirks for like a minute or two, explaining naught. Just because he can, of course. 

Louis, as per usual is the one to call him out on it: “So what?!”

Aiden laughs at them and then he explains: “What happened today is gonna hit national news tonight. Nick is invited as a live guest and he will call everybody to join in on the marching on Monday. He is still trying to figure out what next step is, but he is adamant that we should bring as much people as possible to show off once the problem becomes more mediatic…”

Louis is relieved. If the story hits the medias they have a chance for more support and less chances of the movement just dying out on its own. That’s good news. He smiles at Niall who gives back a small smile of his own.

“Alright, kids. I guess that’s our exit call. I’m going to study for a bit, I don’t intend to lag behind just because I have a conscience and now I need things done before Monday.” Says Liam. 

“Wait for me!” Shouts Zayn launching himself after his retreating boyfriend. 

Louis is left alone with Aiden, Niall and a Sleeping Beauty… Er… A sleeping Harry, rather.

“Think we should go down to the kitchen and stuff ourselves full, Niall, what do you think?” he tries to distract himself.

His blond friend follows him with an ecstatic face at the sound of food, and it’s incredibly endearing. No wonder Omegas are so sought after.

“Aiden, you don’t mind keeping watch?” He asks before exiting the room. 

“No. I’m not hungry. You guys go.”

Uncaring, Louis closes the door behind them and lead Niall down the corridor, heading for the kitchen. They’re not five steps away when Niall grabs him by the elbow.

“Uhm… Lou, is it safe? I don’t mean to doubt your friend or anything, it’s just… It can be harder to resist when you’re alone and I don’t know if Harry can even move yet, so…” 

Louis ruffles through the younger boy’s hair with a smirk.

“Oh, don’t worry about Aiden… I can assure you that he is absolutely harmless. At least, for omegas.” He laughs, though Niall only looks doubtful.

“Don’t worry. He won’t touch Harry even if Harry was still in heat and begging for it. Else I would not leave them alone, trust me.” He is even a little surprised at the stern sound of his own voice when it comes out. There is much more intent in this sentence than he meant it to have and a lot less playfulness. He brushes it aside and leads the way to the kitchen. He needs to eat something, that will chase the blur of his thoughts away and he could smell something else than Omega heat…

* * *

 

“No, Zayyyyyn. I’m trying to work! Damn you!”

 

Zayn laughs as he rolls around shirtless on Liam’s bed. The Alpha tries to focus on Trade Markets and Economy and… Freaking hell, Zayn has the most amazing little nipples, really. On the whole Earth. Maybe he should invest on Zayn’s nipples, he would be the sole stockholder, of course. So actually, that probably wouldn’t be much of a trade or much of a sound investment, but still… 

“You’re soooo distracting!” Liam huffs, rolling onto his back as well. That only makes Zayn laughs as he eventually pushes Liam’s books aside and comes up to straddle his lover. 

“I’m not that distracting Leeyum. It’s just you that can’t resist me.”

Liam closes his hands on his boyfriend’s thighs and knead the flesh gently.

“Because you’re my kryptonite.”

Zayn laughs at the sappy joke, the sound easing off any worries out of Liam, then launches himself on the Alpha’s lips and they devour each other.

* * *

When Harry finally comes back to his senses, he is petrified in fear. He has no clue where he is, or why he isn’t still in his heat-cell or even who whisked him away. He vaguely remembers a brunette Alpha. He had smelt nice and had been so very gentle but he was a perfect stranger and no sane omegas would trust any stranger, nevermind an Alpha.

The comfortable bed and soft blanket around him are giving him a false sense of security. He can’t let himself be fooled that easily.

He scrutinizes the room. It’s a bedroom with two big beds on either side complete with bedside tables and belongings, two wardrobes and in the middle two school desks facing the walls, one messy with pieces of paper and scattered books, the other well ordered and cleared. The room looks no different than the the one he shares with Niall, except for the size of the beds and that the room is noticeably bigger, and it is completely empty at the moment, but Harry is too smart to let himself be so easily duped. Clutching the blanket to his body, he tries to sit down and succeeds. His whole body feels numb, heavy and hardly responsive, but he overcomes himself and finally lays his bare feet on the ground. Maybe he should try for the door. 

Just when the thought reaches his foggy brain, the door opens. The person to enter, he knows, and relief floods his veins when he recognizes his first love coming in.

“Aiden!” He beams. 

* * *

Liam marvels at the muscles working under thin thin skin when Zayn rolls off him. They just made love and Zayn’s naked skin bathed in secluded light and love-sweat is the prettiest thing Liam has ever seen. With his cute small nipples, and his bright smile, and the wonder of his shiny silky black hair and pretty much everything that compose him. Liam is hopelessly enamoured. Hopelessly.

“You’ll be the death of me, Zayn Malik.”

Zayn laughs. “Don’t exaggerate…”

“I’m not, seriously.” Liam reaches for the Beta’s hand and brings it over to where his heart is beating so fast, so loud.

 

“Baby, look what you’ve done to me.”

Zayn has this smile that says out loud he is completely endeared. He crawls back to Liam, laying his head where his hand was, and even this simple movement is like a caress.

“Sometimes, I feel like my heart is gonna burst I swear. Like it’s not meant to beat that intensely.”

“Same. I love you unearthly.” Answers Zayn as he draws secret patterns on Liam’s chest with his fingertips.

They just lie here, basking in each other, gloriously naked, unbothered and happy, simply. The time stretches and shortens all at the same time, and the secluded light of the small bedroom looks dazzling. Their fingers are entwined, so are their legs and they are almost merging into each other 

“Liam…”

“Yes?”

“I think today… For the first time since we started dating I was truly happy to be a Beta…”

Liam kisses his sweaty forehead.

“You’re not bothered?” Zayn insists.

“Why would I be? I’m happy you are who you are Zayn, that’s it.”

Zayn presses his flushed face down on his lover’s pectoral, nuzzling the firm flesh.

“I would have loved you whatever gender you would have been, I suppose. But I’m happy you’re a Beta because at least I know you haven’t been tortured or brutalised. And this way I can keep you close. Always.” Liam presses him even closer for emphasis.

Zayn bites him lightly in retaliation. And keeps munching at his skin just because he likes the feel and taste of it.

“Would you love me if I was any other gender Zayn?” Liam asks.

His lover relents in his nipping only long enough to state a definite. “Yes.”

Liam chuckles. He has a bit of spit all over his left pectoral and he never thought he would ever be happier. And then, Zayn raises his head, planting his chin in the middle of his torso and he says: “I love your body, but I also love your good-heart, your seriousness that only I can side-track you from, your sappiness and your insecurities. I love your Soul, your Spirit and your Bones The rest is only detail, okay?” And he smiles, blindingly bright and sweet.

“Okay.” Well, it seems like there is always such thing as  **_happier_ ** with Zayn Malik. 

* * *

Before he can utter a word, Aiden finds himself with an armful of Harry Styles.The boy is quivering in his embrace, obviously overwhelmed.

“You’re okay Harry. You’re okay.” He soothes, rubbing gentle circles into the younger boy’s back.

“I was so scared. I didn't recognize this place and I thought someone had snatched me.” 

“I know. Sorry, I was meant to stay by your side in case you wake up, but I had to go to the loo. Sorry for the bad timing. You’re alright? Do you hurt anywhere?” He inquires, observing the omega from arm-length.

Harry is crying big frightened tears and he looks so young Aiden’s stomach churn. Did he look so terrifyingly breakable two summers ago, when they had fooled around? Aiden feels burdened with a sense of culpability he never had to deal with before. Harry is so sweet, has always been, he is too fragile, too opened, way too nice. Now that he has something to compare it with, Harry is nothing like Louis. Louis is a volcano waiting to be awaken. He never really does, but Aiden can feel something powerful and dangerous lurking beneath the bigger than life surface, he keeps everything to himself. The two of them couldn't be more different if they wanted. Aiden can only guess Louis and Harry are both perfect embodiment of what people would expect of an alpha and an omega. He knows as well he had never been one for responsibilities

.”I… I think I’m okay. I’ll heal.” Harry whispers softly.

Aiden rubs his back one last time before he pulls off, trying for gentle.

“What about we clean you a bit now that you’re awake.”

Harry nods his approval and Aiden leads him through the door to the bathroom.

* * *

 

Louis and Niall come back to the room with both stomach ready to burst. It is safe to say they acquired a newfound sense of brotherhood through their shared love for pancakes. Niall had time to call both his own parents and Harry’s. He wanted to make sure no one get a panic attack when they learn about the Omega House being shut down. Though worried, both sets of parents were remarkably understanding, and Louis wished he had known more people like them when he was younger, he probably would have it easier nowadays then. Both families had agreed to watch the TV so as to fully understand the extent of what was happening and then to discuss over going back home or not.

All to his good musings, it doesn’t register with Louis immediately that Harry has disappeared. But Niall shrieks like a mauled animal the instant they step into the room.

“Where is he?” The Irish is on the brick of hyperventilation in a matter of seconds, and Louis can not answer, he doesn’t know. He was there though with Aiden. And Aiden would not touch an omega, really, would he? Freaking hell, they left like twenty minutes and Harry is completely gone, blanket and all. His one and first responsibility and not even a difficult one at that and he had to fuck it up, classic! Now a post-heat omega smelling like Heaven and syrup is wandering alone on a Campus full of alphas and betas. He is so fucking dumb really! 

“Calm down, we’re here!”

Niall and Louis bolt through the door and here is Aiden, standing tall by the entry, his frame hiding Harry from view as the omega towels himself dry after his shower. 

“Hazza needed a shower is all, don’t get your knickers in a twist.” Snickers Aiden. 

And Louis kind of freeze there because, really? Since when is Aiden giving pet names to unknown Omegas? Since when is he friend with Harry Styles?

Nial launches himself onto his friend to usher him through to the bedroom while explaining how their school had been shut down and everybody fled from it and Louis keeps staring blankly at Aiden, completely dumbfounded for a while. Aiden, smirking like a smug bastard bumps him with his shoulder when passing by him and whispers secretively:

“Harry was my neighbour like a year and a half ago. He was the first human being I ever touched.”

And damn if that’s not completely coming out of the blue, because Louis would never have so much as imagined Aiden would look twice at someone that is not Louis. He always thought that those tales Aiden was telling, that was all they were… Tales. 

He turns around to look at Harry, still naked and still glorious in the bright afternoon light, with his delightful curls and his perfect full lips, and his lean limbs and perfect broad shoulders and the little moles dotting his chest. Louis tries hard not to think it, but he looks perfect… Everywhere, he thinks, blushing despite himself. And he was Aiden’s first? 

He doesn’t want to ask the other alpha anything, (now that wouldn’t be suspicious at all!) but he can’t help but wonder: What is Harry for Aiden, really? And what about himself then? Where does everyone stand? Had Aiden been, what, cheating on Harry with a reluctant Louis? Everything is so blurred suddenly. 

Out of spite more than anything, Louis made his way to the bedroom to introduce himself properly to Harry, consciously trying to steal Aiden’s spotlight there. After all, he was the one to suggest they go to the omega house and he was the one to decide to follow Niall and go back to pick up Harry, not Aiden. It was a bit ballsy of him to come and play the Hero to his first love now!

“Nice to finally see you awake Harry! I was kind of afraid you would never wake up.”

The Omega only cuddles in more with his best friend at that and apologize flatly. Louis cringes, he doesn’t really know by which end he is supposed to grab this new guy…He tries for laid back…

“Don’t apologize, it’s not your fault. Now let’s get you some clothes.”

He picks up some large zipped sweater, undiz and a pair of trousers from his wardrobe and hands it over to Harry who finally half-smiles at him when he starts dressing up. 

“Thanks” 

“Well, don’t mention it. My name is Louis Tomlinson…”

“I know.” Well… That is going so well, thinks Louis sarcastically. “You’re Niall’s friend from the internet.” Harry elaborates. 

“Oh, that? Uhm, sure, yes. That’s how I met Nialler.” And he can’t help but smile at his Irish lively friend.

“I’ve heard all about you.” Explains Harry with a tone that Louis can’t really quite put a finger on. “You’re fighting for our rights I heard?” 

Louis has a flustered laugh as the omega zips Louis pants on himself and he can’t tore his eyes away. The thought is almost dirty in his mind for some reason…

“Er… Yes? That’s what we do!”

Harry turns to him with his first true smile, and Louis knows the difference instantly, because actual smiles dig huge cute dimples on the curly-haired’s cheeks. Louis can’t help but smile back, as if in a trance.

“Thanks for not leaving me alone back there.” The youngest blurts honestly. “I could have actually die. I mean, I can’t see anyone coming to get me in a shut-down school.”

Niall rubs gentle circles on Harry’s shoulder and Louis smile falters at that.

“No worries.” 

* * *

Louis covers Harry in a constant stream of chit-chat and attention from there, he has this bigger than life personality that makes the youngest forget about anyone else being in the room, he is loud, hilarious, flamboyant, and very very distracting. Harry finds the brunette  immensely interesting despite his best effort. He is still a bit wary because this is Niall’s Louis who seemed to be a bit of a controlling loud-mouth if he is honest, a strong-headed young man, but the fact the Alpha came to his rescue and has been showering him with attention and helped with literally everything (clothes, food etc...) all afternoon kind of makes him feel like he could be, even though, just a little tiny bit, His Louis too. Aiden has disappeared earlier and Harry feels bad for almost not noticing since Louis has been reading them jokes from the internet to try and cheer him up.

“Harry, what do you think is the difference between a snowman and a snowwoman?” 

Harry shrugs, unable not to laugh ahead because… Well, Louis.

“Snowballs.” Answers the brunette popping a carambar in his mouth. Niall face-palms himself and tries to push Louis off the bed with his foot.

“That’s so lame mate, really. Stop it!” 

Louis just grabs Niall’s feet playfully and keeps going: 

“ Why is it a bad idea for two butt cheeks to get married?”  Louis laughs even mid-joke. “Because they part for every little shit.”

Nial makes an ugly heaving sound and punches Louis right off the bed this time.

“Gross!” The Irish protests.

Harry doesn’t even know if he laughs from all the silly jokes or from Louis and Niall antics or just because he is on overdrive but he just can’t stop. The tension from waking up in a foreign environment slowly but steadily seeped out of him, and he is actually having a good time.

“I’ve got one!” He triumphs petulantly.

The two others stop bickering and turn to him expectantly.

 

“Knock, Knock!” He starts.

“Who's There?” Louis supplies ever accommodating.

“Dewey!”

“Dewey who?” 

“Dewey have to use a condom?” 

Niall chuckles with a bewildered look but Louis literally roars in laughter and rolls around the bed in merriment. Harry can’t help but being just a little bit proud.

* * *

Harry cooks for the three of them as a payment for all the good fun he had all afternoon and for kind of saving his life. Potentially; And as well because, let’s face it, he is the cooking partner and Niall is the eating partner. Turns out, Louis is too.

They eat nice manwiches and tuna salad while debating the merits of super-heroes movies (at least the few the Omegas saw when out of school) and when they’re done, Niall and Louis agree to clean the dishes, only to end up fighting a water-battle in the middle of the communal kitchen of Louis’ apartment floor which seems to infuriate some neighbour, not that Louis would care one bit apparently.  

So when they’re done sponging the mess, the two youngers follow Louis in the communal Tv-room, where they meet two other guys which Louis introduces as his friends; One is a muscular Alpha, with a sharp square jaw which is as sexy as it sounds, cute moles on his face and short brown hair, he goes by Liam and the other is slender and leaner with the longest eyelashes Harry ever saw, sparkling dark eyes and a skin that would make anyone question his reality, he looks so damn smooth. His name is Zayn, a Beta and Louis best friend. The two of them move in a weirdly mesmerizing way, as if they were choreographed, as if they were evolving on the same breath. It is sort of fascinating. Harry doesn’t need to be told they are a couple. He just figures. 

 

Louis snatches the remote with authority from a couple of burly guys that had it but weren’t really watching anything, then him and Niall huddle him in between them on the couch as they watch the news about some foreign war unfolding on the other side of the globe. Harry doesn’t like watching the news, it’s always sad, is the thing. But it feels appeasing to be pressed flush on both side, comforting and warm and that makes things almost bearable. Almost.

He’s about to stand up and go fetch himself some water in the kitchen to get away when it starts. What happened earlier that day at the Omega House while he was out of it had been video-taped.

His head snaps back towards the screen and he sees a guy tagged as “Nick Grimshaw, leader of the Omega’s Civil Right Movement” waxing lyrical about their piss poor educational program, he sees his comrades being compared to Alphas and Betas protesters and hence humiliated. 

So he tries to hurry out of the room because this is PAINFUL to watch. 

And then the bomb drops.  “They put Alpha seed in your morning milk, guys.”

From the shock Harry stops dead on his tracks. What? “Yes, they DO. And you know why? Because it keeps you lot docile and open to suggestion, so it won’t require half as much efforts to force you to internalize all the bullshit they teach you. And if it intensifies and extends your heats, it’s only a minor inconvenient, isn’t it? They only have to lock you up, for example, ALL ON YOUR OWN. Actually, it’s even better if you feel like a needy, dirty, unsatisfied bitch afterwards, because this way you’ll be all the more desperate to pocket an alpha and the best way to ensure that… Is to listen to their advices. If you don’t believe me go and check the kitchens. ”

No way! It can’t be. This is like brainwashing or conditioning. They’re in real life here not in some weird psychological experiment! This isn’t right, this is illegal, surely! It can’t be true, right? Thinks Harry in distress. 

Trying to get away all the more hurriedly, he unconsciously knocks the remote from Louis’ hand which draws the alpha’s attention. 

“Harry, you’re alright?” He asks, concern clear in his voice as he too stands up.

“Is it true?” Harry demands in an angry tone that he does not recognize as himself, pointing the TV.

Louis simply shrugs. 

“I don’t know Harry. Is it true?” 

And suddenly the situation flips entirely. Because Louis asks him and he doesn’t want to answer. Since he knows, deep down, he knows. Tears are welling up in his eyes at the realisation. He feels broken and defiled. 

They had spent years being drugged without their consent and left alone to suffer the consequences, they had been conditioned to think and behave like proper Omegas, always gentle and sweet, needy and unable to think on their own, although he never felt as much Omega as he does at this precise moment. He’s broken and tender, more so than when he woke up from his slumber because now he knows that the monsters, they are not only outside, they are inside of him, they are mindless pretty things and he will have to battle them every day of his life…

 

Louis grabs him in the tightest embrace, and that’s all good else he would fall. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alrigh. So quite a long chapter wasn't it. I should do shorters right? WHat do you think?  
> I hope you guys enjoyed the chapter!
> 
> Don't hesitate to leave a comment and or your answer to the game (how many IRL Larry ref did you see?) and give me your opinion on where do you want the story to go and if you have any good titles ideas.
> 
> In the meantime, have a GREAT week and don't forget to be awesome!! xxx


	4. The Flood

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Harry and Louis are play-fighting sweethearts, NIall is struggling silently and we're resolving the first part of the love triangle with Aiden with Louis confronting him...   
> Also, Louis still has a lot to learn.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I apologise profusely for the long long wait in between chapters and in advance for the rather gloomy atmosphere of most of this chapter. But if I'm honest right now, I can't write anything else and I don't think it matters all that much either. The story will go where it has to go in the end, but I can't force it out of every twist and turn, it will be a waste and it wouldn't be the truth. 
> 
> A couple hours after I posted last chapter, I found a note in my living room, it was my dad's goodbyes as he tried to kill himself. My sister and I drove to his work place where he had locked himself and we found him before it was too late and along with my mum we had to force him into a Psych ward so he could cure his addiction to alcohol and his depression. This decision was very difficult to take and the least I can say is that my dad's family wasn't supportive at all. But, it was the right one, now, three weeks later, even him can see that, and what is even better, he wants to live. He is now safe, home, rested and with a changed perspective of things. And though I know we yet have to win our battle against his depression, and alcohol will always remain an issue, I feel hopeful once again. We've been tested, our bonds have been stretched, but through it all we stood together, and that's what pulled us all though. 
> 
> So one thing I can say to people who found themselves into similar situations is don't listen to those saying it's hopeless, that depression is a person's character or upbringing and there is nothing to do. They are oh so wrong! People who try to commit suicide are just tired, they obey to an impulse and once the impulse is gone, they are happy to have survived.  
> Stand together with the people you love, they will give you strenght. Try to be patient and understanding but don't let people hurt you either for if you feel crushed you won't help anyone and ALWAYS talk, share your feelings, because you might think bottling things up is sheltering your loved ones, but try as you might, they can always feel that you're not okay, even when they don't speak up and maybe all they want is for you to trust them and open up about how you feel...
> 
> As for me, I'm going to take things easy now. I'm still gonna write but I'll do it in my own time. I'll probably vent a lot of frustration and pain in my writings, but I'll also vent my hopes and that's the one single most beautifull thing I can share...
> 
> I need to thank everyone who has been leaving kudos, bookmarks subscriptions or comments. It's a small gesture of appreciation, but in my dark hours, it was the kind of small things grounding me, taking my mind off things for a much needed moment. Thank you especially to Dee, for her kind words and comprehension.
> 
> If I don't publish before Christmas, I wish to all of you the most beautifull of time and heaps of love. And Hope. Always.

_ “Traumatic events, by definition, overwhelm our ability to cope. When the mind becomes flooded with emotion, a circuit breaker is thrown that allows us to survive the experience fairly intact, that is, without becoming psychotic or frying out one of the brain centers. The cost of this blown circuit is emotion frozen within the body. In other words, we often unconsciously stop feeling our trauma partway into it, like a movie that is still going after the sound has been turned off. We cannot heal until we move fully through that trauma, including all the feelings of the event.”  _

_ ―  _ [ **_Susan Pease Banitt_ ** ](http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5306902.Susan_Pease_Banitt) _ ,  _ **_[The Trauma Tool Kit: Healing PTSD from the Inside Out](http://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/18147745) (1)_ **

  
  


Harry sobs sound like paper tearing, they are profound, dry and his whole chest is heaving in a desperate attempt at getting the air in. Louis has him in the tightest embrace he ever gave and it’s a wonder the younger boy just doesn’t break. It’s all quite pathetic frankly, and Louis knows he’s powerless but for the strength he puts in this embrace. The Alpha doesn’t know the demons consuming Harry’s thoughts, the kind of floods he had to fought, the hurt the despair and the blur it creates. He only knows the limit of this skin he holds, this skin so tight emotions can barely fit in. 

Harry is beautiful even when he looks small.

Louis sits him down and then spends the rest of their TV night (something lighter is on now, some comedy show) scratching Harry’s scalp almost tenderly and kneading the tension of his shoulders away. **(2)** The flesh is warm and supple through the thin layer of cotton and Harry stops crying after a while. The curly haired young man ends up resting heavily on Louis’ side, arms clenched around his own body.

Soon after the show, they turn the TV off and go to bed without a noise. Harry’s break down is heavy on them all, it also magnifies him to no end and Louis just wants to be there for him. 

Louis ushers him to his own bed alongside Niall, he wishes both omegas good night, give them jokingly a kiss on the forehead, like a mum would, before he goes to Aiden’s bed. The other Alpha is nowhere to be found, but Louis has other things on his mind..

Niall falls asleep almost instantly, slightly snoring something sweet but Harry twists and turns for hours and Louis from the other side of the room watches over him like he’s some guardian or something. Finally, after long, Louis succumbs to sleep.

* * *

 

Harry and Niall are at the pool, in the changing rooms. They’re combing their wet hair backwards in front of the mirrors in perfect silence. There is no sound but the constant dripping of water somewhere in the calm plumbing behind them and the rushed swooshing of water running on the ground from the deeper pool that is behind the wall in front of them. Niall claps his toes in the fine layer of liquid and so does Harry giggling. They’re innocent and oblivious, looking like perfect sweet boys with their hair nicely combed, plump features, and kiddie swim trunk. 

And suddenly, without any warning sign the wall cracks from the ceiling to the ground with a loud hellish groan-like noise. Water trickles down the cracks and both boys feel constricting anguish bubble up in their chest. It lasts only for a split second but it is hurtful and almost physical and then the roof gets straight dislocated from the room and a pressurized torrent of water pours down on them with the violence of the worst  tsunamis. Both boys reach out for one another but before they get completely crushed by the pressure, the tide had drifted them apart…

 

Niall wakes up with a start long before anyone else, frantic frightened heart beating ferociously in his chest. He feels incapacitated with anguish and it turns his stomach over. He drags himself to the bathroom, tears welling up against his best effort so that he’s practically blind, he’s sick, he feels so sick as he sprays his whole head with clear water, picturing the bad thoughts, the bad feelings tainting it black then running back down the pipes away from him. He closes his eyes for a moment, breathing slowly, deeply, so deeply. In… And out. In… And out. The flood of emotions he could feel rising up to the top of his head slowly, so slowly boils down. 

When he reopens his eyes, there is no more tears and he feels so eerily calm. He feels nothing at all.

* * *

Louis wakes up almost at the exact same time Harry does and it’s jarring how in tune he feels with an almost perfect stranger.

"‘Morning baby cakes!"

Harry’s dopey smile is dimpled and brighter than a sun as he rolls around onto his side and sits down.

“Did you sleep well?” Louis asks.

Harry nods, all sleep soft and cuddly in Louis white night shirt with the sheets pooling around his waist like a small immaculate sea. 

“Your bed is comfy.” The youngest says in a deep-deep-deep, raw voice that puts goosebumps all over Louis’ skin. What the heck?

Louis is not used to be affected by other people, not in a sensual sense, never. It always took Aiden some efforts and direct contact to arouse him and he never felt quite this mesmerised, quite this attracted by anyone ever. Ever. Not even her…

To have this kind of impact on him is simply unprecedented.

“Where is Niall?”

That snaps him out of it. What is with Omegas and disappearing god damn it?

* * *

 

“Hi mum!” Thunders Harry picking up the phone later on in Louis room, after they found Niall loitering in the kitchen and they all had breakfast together...

“Hi sweetheart How are you?”

Louis is glued so close to Harry’s side with his chin hooked over the tall omega’s shoulder that he can hear the conversation just as well as if he was the one holding the phone.

“I’m all good. I’m just chilling with Niall and Louis right now.”

“That’s nice love. Well, so I’m near London right now, and I should be with you in around forty-five-ish minutes. Can you meet us at the place we ate when we helped your sister move last summer?”

“I’m literally in Central London right now, Louis’s Uni is near Victoria so I’m like ten minutes away by tube. Even the streets look posh around here mum.” 

Louis blinks and Harry laughs. For a second the brunette thinks it’s because of some inner joke shared only between a son and his mum, but when Harry gently pushes Louis’ head away from his shoulder, he realises it might actually be his fault, though exactly why is a good question. He didn’t even say anything. 

Through his mother commenting on how she enjoys London herself, Harry spares a glance to Louis who must look so absolutely lost. Louis is used to being the funny, petulant guy around, but usually he so intends to be. 

Fortunately, Harry is a man of (small) mercy, he covers the phone with his hand (tuning out everything his mum says) and mutters to Louis: “Your eyelashes are tickling me!”; And he giggles sweetly at Louis expenses, before picking up his conversation seamlessly, the little menace..

Louis should be outraged at being pushed away so, at least a little bit, but somehow he feels more like swooning. He hooks his chin back on Harry's shoulder, ignoring the other boy’s (feeble) attempts at dislodging him and blinks purposefully on the delicate skin of his neck. Harry has to hurriedly hang up with a promise that he will be there in forty minutes before flipping back to Louis.

“A la guerre, je dis… Oui!” (3) He shouts before launching himself onto Louis to try and tickle him, not that he would be any good at it if Louis really wanted to stop him since Louis has way more brutal strenght as an alpha so the thing has to be that Louis doesn’t really want to stop him.

“What was that? Didn’t know you could speak French…”  Mocks Louis valiantly battling the flailing limbs away from him.

“I picked it up from a book we studied. It was about some mindless young omega getting tricked by a mature alpha into bondless sex. By the end, she gets completely ruined and then there is another, an older one who is very bitter because she is too proud to bond with her soulmate and so he decides he wants to bond someone else, so she says “The war, then.” and she spends half of the book trying to ruin him but in the end she gets a horrible fate because since she’s in heat she goes after all the alphas and gets a weird disease and dies… They even made a movie out of it. Teachers used to tell us we would get ruined just as well if we carved in to our neediness.” 

“Wow, that sounds fucking depressing. I never saw this movie.I should feel lucky.”

“Yes, you should:” Hammers Harry, getting back to tickling him. 

Louis decides to start tickling back, see how Harry likes the taste of his own medicine.

They wrestle on the bed for a few more minutes before Aiden barges in the room.

His disapproving glance has the merit (disadvantage, really) to calm Harry down a bit. Louis notices it. How Harry goes all soft and pliant whenever Aiden is in the room.  And it could be sweet and alluring but Louis hates it. Hates when Harry goes quiet and withdrawn while he is this lively, brighter than a sun persona along Louis. It makes the Alpha feels as if he is the one bringing that out of Harry and it’s too good to be taken away.

“Allright Harold, we should go if we don’t want your mum to wait.” He asserts definitely, raising from the heaps of limbs they were making to get his jacket from the wardrobe and tossing his new friend his most comfortable winter coast across the room.

He doesn’t miss the little constricted face the youngest pulls as an excuse to Aiden before tightening himself in Louis’ huge jacket. Louis puts both hands on the curly haired’s shoulders and guide him to the door without a word for Aiden. And what if the other alpha used to fool around with Harry? That doesn’t automatically entitle him to the youngest undying admiration for ever and ever. Especially since he had  _ cheated _ ! 

That specifically really didn’t sit well with Louis. The possibility that Harry could somehow figure it out and blame Louis for that, start hating him would soon be giving him nightmares.

‘Louis! A word before you go.” Calls Aiden in his too serious tone of voice.

The boy with the feathery fringe grumbles but reluctantly lets himself be lead sufficiently away that Harry would not overhear them and brace himself. As soon as they are on their own Aiden blurts out:

“What the fuck d’you think you’re doin’?”

Louis cringes, seconds before he recoils and bolts like a spring letting his bewilderment get the best of him.

“What?! What do you think I’m doing? I’m not doing anything! And I should be asking you really! What the fuck do YOU think you’re doing?!”

Aiden literally steps back when confronted with his roommate explosive anger. Louis doesn’t even really know where it comes from nor how to keep it in. It’s acrid inside him and burning, he just has to spill it.

“Were you playing with him? Are you playing with me? I don’t understand you. Am I some kind of experiment before you go to mate Harry? I thought we were friends. I thought I knew you but obviously I was wrong!” He explodes. 

Aiden looks at him with this torn, hurt gaze.

“Louis, I confided in you more than in anyone else ever. For some reason you’re the only person I can talk to about what I feel, how inadequate sometimes. And you know I feel for you…” 

Louis looks at him, really looks at him. The beautiful masculine face with sharp angles everywhere and the broad shoulders and everything that makes Aiden so  _ alpha. _ And the crying despair in the depth of his eyes and the shaking of his hand as he is reaching out for Louis. And though his anger doesn’t vanish into thin air, it falls significantly.

Part of him wants to reach back, to make peace with his friend and to shun his doubts and feelings. He can just sit on this and keep being good friends with Aiden; But ever since he learnt something went on between Aiden and Harry it had been here, constantly nagging at the back of his mind, the doubt... And it consumes him.

“What about Harry then?” He can’t stand this uncertainty.

Aiden lets his hand fall between them and it is the single most hurtful little gesture Louis has ever witnessed.

“You like him don’t you?” Aiden whispers. It’s not truly a question on his part even though Louis feels like he is still miles away from an answer himself.

“It’s nothing to do with my relationship with him. I’m asking you about yours. I’m asking if you lead him on before, it you used him. Because it pains me to see him looking at you like the sun is shining out of your backside is all! It’s just not right to him.”

Even though Louis said “is all”, it seems to be “too much” for Aiden who’s angry in turn.

“Oh you know what, yes! Yes, I abused his...” Aiden almost spats “fragile innocence because he’s an omega and I’m the big perverted alpha, innit? I’ve been using him to experiment, right?!”

Louis feels horrified through every word that feel like venom. Aiden is not like that!

“The thing is Louis I never abused him, I never meant to. I never meant to hurt him or anyone either and at the time even though it never went really far it didn’t feel like experimenting, I was just trying to fit in, to live up to everybody standards. And believe me I feel guilty enough that I possibly hurt him, enough that I freaking moved out. I didn’t need you to bring him back and rub him into my face.”

“Do you think I’ve done this on purpose? Aiden you’re delusional, mate. It just sort of happened. I couldn’t possibly know it would be him. I wouldn’t guess you would know him.” (4)

“I know!” Aiden howls almost like a hurt little animal. “But that doesn’t change a thing, does it? I just feel bad. I’d rather not see him. I don’t want to feel like he’s my responsibility either. And I don’t want to see you with him.  And I know I’m a prick to think like that, but I can’t help it, okay?!”

Finally, something in Louis somehow clicks and he reaches back. And Aiden lets himself be pulled into a loose hug. Louis will himself to be like a comforting blanket.

“It’s okay.” He says, even if he‘s not really sure it truly is or even what exactly is. He just says “It’s okay. I’m sorry.”

Aiden hugs him back albeit tentatively. When Louis peeks at his shoulder, after a little while, he notices little wet spot marring his jacket where Aiden’s teardrops fell and he tries to hug him tighter. But the moment must be gone already and Aiden carefully pushes away, chuckling uneasily.

“You know, you’re not the one to talk anyway Louis. You haven’t been treating me with more regards that I treated Harry back then. Though, at least I realise I was doing something wrong. But I guess I’m not gonna complain, it’s fair punishment.”

Louis who was all molten with their moment of intimacy gets caught completely off-guard. For a split second he does not know what to say and when his brain cells finally connect they all but fuze.

“It’s different. We’re both alphas, aren’t we? And we’re friends and roommates. And I never came onto you, you did. Everything is different. You can’t compare it.” He is not shouting, he is not angry anymore but it all comes in hurried hushed, almost manic tone. 

“Why should it be different because we’re alphas? I don’t get it.”

Louis crooks his head a little,  

“Well omegas are more emotional than we are. They get sad and cry, while we…”

Aiden laugh has no ounce of joy whatsoever in it. 

“While we’re meant to bottle things up and get crippled in the long run?! You can keep marching for equal rights all you want, you’re still as prejudiced as anyone else Louis!”

Louis is not a little diconcerted.

“What d’ya mean?”

“We’re not having less feelings than them because of our gender! I literally just cried on your shoulder Louis! How can you not realise?! You didn’t hurt me less than I hurted him just because I’m an alpha! This is ridiculous! I, goddamn it, you hurt just as much as any omegas would hurt in the same situations.”

“You know it’s not true Aiden. I don’t cry.” He spats before he can stop himself. He doesn’t mean to brag about how he copes better than Aiden or anything, it just escaped him. It’s just a fact.

“Yeah, well maybe you should sometimes Louis, because so far bottling up shit hasn’t done you much good!”

Everything stops. The words are up in the air, their implication heavy between them. Everything is motionless, suspended, unreal. 

“Speak, Louis!” The other alpha orders. But Louis, feels… Like spaced out. Like this is a play or something. He doesn’t even feel like he’s here anymore.

Aiden looks at him with something akin to pity all the while and sighs deeply.

“I meant to tell you, you probably didn’t even realise, but you have been scenting him… Harry. Just before, you were rubbing your clothes into his shoulders.”

“I wasn’t.” He mutters in his almost drunk state. 

“Fine. You weren’t then. In any case, don’t lead him on either, Louis. Don't let him hope if you can't mate him...”

And with that something in him comes crashing down. That’s precisely the moment reality rushes back to Louis like a bolt. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (1) - This title gets its title "The flood" from the sensation of being overwhelmed with emotions as the way I represent it to myself is rather watery. You can get drowned in your own emotions.   
> Though I'm representing a blooming PTSD in this chapter, I'm not sure yet if I'll deliver on this because it is far land for me and I think those kind of issues need an adequate representation. Even if I do, let it be said now, I don't have PTSD as far as I know neither does anyone I know, so I don't think I'll deliver the truth on that part, probably only a fantasized version of it. Like the fact nobody notices at first because I think that's how it happens, but it's probably (fortunately) not the case for evyone with PTSD. You can't blame a girl for trying to adress big issues...
> 
> (2) scratching Harry’s scalp almost tenderly and kneading the tension of his shoulders away: If you remember that was the gestures Harry was craving when his heat started. Am I hinting at the possibility Louis and Harry are true mates and they instinctively know how to care for one another? You decide.
> 
> (3) "A la guerre, je dis... Oui!" This is a quote from Merteuil in Dangerous Liaisons (Les liaisons dangereuses) written by Choderlos de LaClos and shot as a movie by Stephen Frears.  
> The book is actually a vibrant call for women to be educated in a time where all they could hope for was to be sent to a covent. It basically says that if a girl is educated she will avoid most traps and cons...  
> I was interested in depicting a society that twist cultural imput to have them say whatever THEY want. I think a reader should always be careful with dogmatic knowledge. Any work of Art's meaning is only partly written by the author, the other part is entirely the reader's imput. You can read the same text and make two different reading of its meanings. What if a society chose purposefully to teach you one that is damaging to you? That's the case here...
> 
> (4) “Do you think I’ve done this on purpose? Aiden you’re delusional, mate. It just sort of happened. I couldn’t possibly know it would be him. I wouldn’t guess you would know him.”: Double meaning anyone? Jeez, I've been so sneaky and subtle in this chapter I'm dumbfouded at myself!
> 
> (5) Spacing out like this in a middle of a conversation is a more common than you would think issue. It's called dissociacion/depersonalization/dereaslisation. It's not always a severe issue as a lot of the population admit to a couple of episodes in moments of extreme stress but it can have dangerous consequences if it is a repetitve thing.
> 
> Allright. Thar's it for now. I know it was pretty short. Again, I'm sorry, but at least I'm more satisfied with this chapter than with the two previous ones... I hope you enjoyed it.
> 
> Don't hesitate to hit me up in the comments and share your mind, I'm always happy to answer. And you can as well leave kudos, bookmarks and subscriptions, the support you guys show me on my first fic is glorious, thank you!!!


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